Power of Stories- Tim O'Brien

Power of Stories “ You can tell a true story if you just keep on telling it” Tim O’Brien Are fiction stories always based on imagination? Or does it come from someone’s reality? Have you ever asked yourself why people read fiction stories? Either told through movies or books, fiction stories are ways people find to escape from their reality. However, most of the fiction stories come from people’s life, or are based in a real fact in order to be credible. In some ways, the truth must be distorted to be understandable, because sometimes it can be too complex to be explained. Both Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi, and How To Tell a True Story, by Tim O’Brien, attempt to discover the truth even if it was exemplified by fiction, however, the searches were for different environments, gender, circumstances, and purposes. In Azar Nasifi’s passage, Reading Lolita in Tehran, she uses fiction to escape the harsh reality she was experiencing, and to learn the hidden truth. Nasifi was a Middle-Eastern woman, who took an enormous risk by inviting seven female students into her house to discuss literature, more specifically, fictional stories. Nasifi believed and was convinced in the power of stories, and because of that, she knew these stories could make an impact on these girls lives by analyzing and comparing them to the trapped situation in which women were facing. She wanted to challenge her students to discuss “not so much reality, but the epiphany of truth” (417). However, in their present environment the only way these girls could change their truth to a better one was through fiction. (“… the color of my dreams) It entailed an active withdrawal form a reality that had turned hostile” (423). The study group was then a class in which they would have “a space for their own.” An environment where they could be away from the truth of their lives, and be whoever they wanted to be, and accept themselves for who they were. In other words, through fiction the